Whole System Therapy

02/06/2026

Today marks one year since we welcomed Jo to our practice. 🤍

Over the past year, Jo has honestly brought so much warmth, compassion, and dedication to the children, young people, and families she supports.

What many people don’t see is the incredible amount of thought, reflection, ongoing learning, and genuine care she pours into her work behind the scenes. She is deeply committed to understanding the children and families she works with and supporting them in ways that truly honour who they are.

Jo is a natural Counsellor and Therapeutic Play Practitioner, a valued member of our team, and someone who makes a meaningful difference in the lives of the families she walks alongside every day.

As we continue to move into the next chapter of the practice, I am genuinely excited about all that Jo contributes to this space. She brings not only her professional knowledge and therapeutic skill, but also the richness of her lived experience, deep empathy, and a heartfelt commitment to creating spaces where neurodivergent children, young people, and families can finally exhale and feel truly understood, valued, and supported.

Thank you, Jo, for all that you are… and all that you do.

Happy one-year to you. 🌿✨🎈

Jo is currently immersed heart, mind, and soul in some incredible depth-oriented play therapy training this week, while I’m away from the practice. So we’ll be saving the celebrations and heading out to mark the occasion properly next week. 🤍🎉

01/06/2026

We’re building something new. 🌈🍃✨

If you’d like to follow along as NEUROiNCLUSIVE Co. grows, we’d love to have you there.

Join us for neuro-affirming insights, therapy, education, training, advocacy, and conversations that truly nurture understanding, belonging, and genuine inclusion.

Follow our new page: Neuroinclusive Co. 🤍

Welcome, I’m Kara James 🍃

I’m the founder of NEUROiNCLUSIVE Co. and creator of the Whole System Therapy Framework, providing neuro-affirming counselling, play therapy, family support, education, training, and consultancy in Bundaberg and online across Australia.

My pathway into this work wasn’t a straight line.

Before entering the therapy field, I spent many years working in music, school classrooms, private education, and early learning environments. Along the way, I became fascinated by the connection between emotion, regulation, relationships, and human behaviour. Studying Neurologic Music Therapy was one step on that journey, but my curiosity about people began long before that.

As a multiply neurodivergent person, I spent much of my life observing, trying to understand why people do what they do and what helps us connect, grow, and thrive.

Then I became a parent.

Becoming a parent to neurodivergent children, including a child with significant support needs, opened my eyes to just how misunderstood autistic, ADHD, and otherwise neurodivergent people and families often are.

I knew there had to be a better way.

That passion led me into counselling, play therapy, neurodiversity-affirming practice, attachment, nervous system wellbeing, relational neuroscience, and family systems. Over time, those experiences came together in the development of the Whole System Therapy Framework, which recognises that wellbeing is shaped not only by the individual, but by the relationships, environments, and systems around them.

Neurodiversity is not just my profession. It is my lived experience, my family, my community, and the work I am privileged to do every day.

For a long time, I didn't have the language, understanding, confidence, or voice that I have today. I know what it feels like to know something isn't fitting, but not yet have the words to explain why. I know what it feels like to have needs that others cannot see or understand. To feel unseen.

That experience never left me.

Perhaps that's why this work feels so personal.

There is another part of this story that feels important to share.

As a multiply neurodivergent person, I recognise that neurodivergence is not a single experience. While my experience has included barriers, complexities, and many learning opportunities, I am also deeply aware that many neurodivergent people require significantly more support than I do.

I consider myself privileged in many ways.

And with that privilege comes an opportunity to advocate, learn, and contribute where I can.

Because every day I meet children, adults, and families who are searching for understanding.

For me, this work has never been about therapy alone.

It is about helping people find their voice.

And sometimes, until they can find it themselves, holding space for that voice to emerge is one of the most meaningful contributions I can make. 🍃

With a big sky-wide sense of belonging,
Thank you for being here. 🌈✨

Kara 🤍

31/05/2026

A little update from behind the scenes... 🍃

Over the past few weeks, many of you will have noticed a few changes as I've been refining the vision and direction of my work.

Originally, the plan was to have two arms of the brand sitting side by side: 𝗪𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘆 and 𝗡𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗢𝗶𝗡𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗖𝗼.

Then my neurodivergent brain did what neurodivergent brains often do... followed the connections, spotted a pattern, changed direction halfway through, and arrived at a much better solution after I'd already started building the first one. 😅

As the ideas have evolved, something important became clear.

𝙒𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚 𝙎𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙮 𝙞𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨. 𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙.

It's the lens that guides everything I do and the way I understand people, relationships, wellbeing, neurodivergence, environments, systems, and support. It's become something much bigger than a business name, and over the coming months I'll be taking steps to formally protect the 𝗪𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘆 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 as intellectual property and continue developing it further.

What that means is that moving forward, everything will be coming together under one banner:

✨ 𝗡𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗢𝗶𝗡𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗖𝗼 ✨

This will become the home of all of my work, including:

• Counselling
• Play Therapy
• Parent & Caregiver Support
• Neurodiversity Education
• School & Workplace Consulting
• Professional Development & Training
• The Whole System Therapy Framework
• ANCHORED
• HERE TOGETHER & COTHÚ (By AUsome Training)

To be honest, this also makes far more sense from a practical perspective. Rather than managing multiple brands, websites, social media pages and content streams, bringing everything together under one banner allows me to focus my energy where it matters most: supporting families, training professionals, creating resources, and developing programs.

You may notice that this page is still called Whole System Therapy for the moment. Unfortunately, Meta has a restriction that prevents page names from being changed again for 60 days after a recent name change. As this page was only renamed a couple of weeks ago, I'll need to wait a little longer before I can officially update and merge all pages into the NEUROiNCLUSIVE Co name.

In the meantime, you'll start seeing the branding, content and messaging gradually transition across.

💛 A little favour while everything is transitioning...

I'll be gradually shifting content across to the Neuroinclusive Co. page over the coming weeks. If you'd like to continue following along with updates, resources, training opportunities, advocacy, and everything happening behind the scenes, I'd love for you to jump across and like and follow the Neuroinclusive Co. page as well.

Once Meta allows the page name change, the plan is to bring everything together under the one banner.

Thank you for sticking with me while my AuDHD brain continues to build the plane while flying it. ✈️😅

Sometimes the clearest path only becomes obvious once you've started walking it, and I'm incredibly excited about where this journey is heading.

🤍🍃

𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀
Founder, NEUROiNCLUSIVE Co
Creator of the Whole System Therapy Framework

30/05/2026

Today I’m sitting in front of an Ableton Live course for neurodivergent learners.

A guitar at my feet.
A piano beside me.
An album I’ve been working on for some time now that’s finally taking shape.

And it got me thinking.

Over the last 12 years, I’ve started more courses than I can count.

Counselling & Psychotherapy.
Psychology.
Behavioural Science.
Human Services.
Disability.
Developmental Education.
Play Therapy.
Creative Arts Therapy.
Neurologic Music Therapy.
Neurodiversity.
Varied modalities and professional development.
Training after training after training.

But the truth is, this pattern started long before that.

Before counselling and psychotherapy, there was music studies.

Before neurodiversity and nervous systems, there was education studies.

More training.
More courses.
More learning.
More curiosity.

From the outside, it probably looks like I’ve spent a lifetime jumping from one thing to another. But the funny thing is…

I don’t believe I have.

The reason being is that as a neurodivergent and creative individual, I learn through felt experience.

I need to step into something.
Feel it.
Live it.
Understand it from the inside.

I don’t learn by standing on the shore reading about the water.

I learn by getting in it!

So over the past 2 decades I’ve explored different professions, frameworks, modalities, creative pursuits, and ways of understanding people.

And every one of them has taught me something valuable. Not because I stayed forever. But because I experienced them.

And when I look back now, a pattern emerges.

🤍 I keep coming back to psychotherapy as the space where all of those streams converge.
🤍 I keep coming back to play therapy.
🤍 I keep coming back to creativity.
🤍 I keep coming back to education.
🤍 I keep coming back to understanding what it means to be fully human.

Even writing music isn’t a random side quest. It’s actually part of the same story.

Whether I’m sitting with a family in the therapy room, facilitating training in a school, speaking about neurodiversity, or writing songs in a studio, I’m exploring the same questions:

🍃 Why do people behave the way they do?
🍃 What shapes us?
🍃 What hurts us?
🍃 What heals us?
🍃 How do relationships change us?
🍃 How do people find meaning?
🍃 How do we reconnect with ourselves?

Maybe I haven’t spent my life wandering. Perhaps I’ve been gathering pieces.

And now, looking back, I can finally see how they fit together.

Sometimes the pattern is the actual answer.

And if you're someone who feels like you've taken the long way around, if you've changed directions more times than you can count, questioned whether you're moving forward at all...

Maybe give yourself a little grace too.

I’ve realised that not every path makes sense while you're walking it.
Sometimes we can only see the connections when we look back.

Trust your curiosity.
Trust what keeps calling you back.
Trust the things that light you up.

Anyway, this is my day today. A little something that lights me up ✨

Sitting in my little home music studio, learning Ableton, reflecting on the winding road that somehow keeps leading me back to the same themes.

✨ Creativity.
✨ Connection.
✨ Meaning.
✨ Being human.

Let’s hope I can turn today’s learning into a little sample worth sharing with you all a little later today 🎶

Happy Saturday 🌈

Kara 🤍🍃

27/05/2026

We’re officially on Instagram 🤳✨

Behind the scenes, things are growing, creating, shifting, and expanding… fuelled by a very deep passion, approximately 104 open tabs, and a brain that treats every “small idea” like a full-scale ecosystem, expanding my vision for what NEUROiNCLUSIVE support and education can really look like in Australia.

Follow along for updates, trainings, resources, reflections, and the beautifully chaotic process of building something meaningful.



There’s a lot happening behind the scenes. 🧠🤍🍃

26/05/2026

Big news… 🤍

I’m incredibly excited to officially launch HERE TOGETHER Neurodiversity Training for Schools in Australia with AUsome Training.

I’m truly honoured to be Australia’s first certified lived experience practitioner delivering this training, and I genuinely believe these conversations are needed in schools now more than ever.

HERE TOGETHER supports schools to better understand neurodivergent students through a nervous system-informed, relational, and neuro-affirming lens.

This training focuses on:
✨ emotional safety
✨ co-regulation & connection
✨ inclusive learning environments
✨ understanding distress and nervous system needs
✨ supporting neurodivergent students in ways that protect wellbeing, dignity, and learning
✨ working collaboratively with schools to create sensory and social audits that help identify barriers, overwhelm, and opportunities for more inclusive environments

As a Neurodivergent Child, Youth & Family Counsellor specialising in this support therapeuticly, and parent of neurodivergent children, this work is deeply personal to me too.

I’m already beginning conversations with schools across Queensland and beyond, and I’m so excited about what this could mean for educators, families, and students.

Training available:
📍 In person across Queensland
💻 Online Australia-wide via Zoom

A huge thank you to the AUsome Training team for such an incredible training experience and for trusting me to help bring this work into Australian schools.

If your school, kindergarten, or education team would like more information or would like to register interest, feel free to reach out and I will send you our PD pack.

📩 kara@playcreative.com.au

Let’s build learning environments where neurodivergent children feel safe enough to learn, connect, and thrive. 🤍🍃

22/05/2026

Before we label it “bad behaviour,” we need to ask, “Is this a skill issue or a nervous system overload?”

This is exactly why parent, caregiver, and educator expectations are sometimes part of the struggle.

A lot of children are being viewed through the lens of “won’t” instead of “can’t yet.”

Neuroscience tells us the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for things like impulse control, working memory, planning, emotional regulation, and following multi-step instructions, is still massively under construction in childhood. It does not fully develop until well into our twenties.

So when you ask a 5-year-old:
“Put your shoes on, grab your jacket, get your bag, and wait by the door,”

and 30 seconds later they are sitting on the floor playing with LEGO instead… that is not automatically defiance.

Their brain may have genuinely lost the sequence.

And honestly, when we really stop and think about what we are asking of children sometimes, it is huge.

We expect them to:
👉 stop what they are deeply focused on
👉 transition quickly
👉 hold multiple instructions in working memory
👉 organise their body
👉 regulate frustration
👉 ignore distractions
👉 manage sensory input
👉 and do it all on demand

That is a lot for an adult nervous system some days, let alone a child whose brain is still developing.

For neurodivergent children, this gap between expectation and developmental capacity can become even bigger. A child may fully understand the instruction, but their nervous system and executive functioning may not yet be able to coordinate all the steps consistently.

This is why support matters.

Not louder commands.
Not punishment.
Not assuming bad intent.

Sometimes support looks like slowing things down, reducing the amount of information being held at once, and staying connected alongside the child.

“Should we do shoes first?”
Pause.
“Okay, jacket next.”
Pause.
“Ready to head to the door together?”

Children need us to co-regulate and scaffold the process alongside them, rather than simply increasing pressure or repeating demands.

I think many adults today grew up being expected to function beyond what their own developmental capacity actually was too. So behaviours linked to overwhelm, stress, or developmental capacity were often interpreted as laziness, attitude, disrespect, or not trying hard enough, and those same interpretations can unknowingly be passed down to children today.

Sometimes the shift is not:
“How do I make my child comply?”

but:
“What is a realistic expectation for this brain, this nervous system, this age, and this moment?”

That question changes everything. 🍃

20/05/2026

A very real parenting moment this morning where I’m learning how to hold pride and heartbreak in the same hand. . 🤍

Parenting is full of these invisible little moments where your heart quietly realizes “Something is changing here.”

And somehow it feels both beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. ✨